Abstract. The Measurements of Pollution in the Troposphere (MOPITT) Version 6 (V6) product for carbon monoxide (CO) incorporates several enhancements which will benefit many users of MOPITT data. V6 algorithm improvements are described in detail, and V6 validation results are presented. First, a geolocation bias related to the orientation of the MOPITT instrument relative to the TERRA platform was characterized and eliminated. Second, the variable a priori for CO concentrations for V6 is based on simulations performed with the chemical transport model Community Atmosphere Model with Chemistry (CAM-chem) for the years 2000–2009 instead of the model-derived climatology for 1997–2004 used for V5. Third, meteorological fields required for V6 retrieval processing are extracted from the MERRA (Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis For Research And Applications) reanalysis. Finally, a significant latitude-dependent retrieval bias in the upper troposphere in Version 5 products has been substantially reduced.

The MOPITT Version 6 product for carbon monoxide (CO) incorporates several enhancements. First, a geolocation bias has been eliminated. Second, the new variable a priori for CO concentrations is based on simulations performed with the CAM-Chem chemical transport model for the years 2000-2009. Third, required meteorological fields are extracted from the MERRA reanalysis. Finally, a retrieval bias in the upper troposphere was substantially reduced. Validation results are presented.

The MOPITT Version 6 product for carbon monoxide (CO) incorporates several enhancements. First,...